The invention relates to apparatus for medical/surgical/dental procedures which require the use of medicinal fluids and suction in patient treatment. In particular the invention relates to a system capable of storing and dispensing fluids under controlable pressures while at the same time supplying a constant ability to aspirate an area with or without contemporaneous irrigation.
Numerous needle type injectors, irrigators, aspirators and combinations of these devices have been utilized in the past for supplying solutions of medicinal materials and/or suction to a tissue surface once the tissue surface of interest has been mechanically exposed to the health care professional.
Quintin U.S. Pat. No. 1,189,735 of July 4, 1916 for Dental Injector and Extractor disclosed a device which applied heated air to the tip of a dental handpiece for drying purposes and had a valve to convert the air flow to suction to aspirate waste fluids, tooth debris and the like.
Hirsch U.S. Pat. No. 3,035,351 for Method of Root Canal and Periodontal Therapy, of May 22, 1962, discloses a tip for flushing root canals of teeth by feeding fluids to multiple passages in the device which extend radially from the tip. This device is not so constructed as to apply suction and would require a second device for this purpose.
Malmin U.S. Pat. No. 3,745,655, for Endodonic Irrigating Instrument, of July 17, 1973, shows a handpiece with a connection to a vacuum source, and a magazine to receive a hypodermic ampule. The handpiece includes a valve which selectively coupls the vacuum source, a duct or the ampule duct to a single passage tip. In this device there is no opportunity to easily select among multiple irrigants; there is a limited volume of irrigant which is stored in the handpiece and the operation requires the manual imposition of pressure on the plunger for the ampule to dispense irrigant.
Zorzi U.S. Pat. No. 3,164,153, of Jan. 5, 1965, for Dental Apparatus, disclosed an apparatus having a reservoir for irrigant and one for aspirated waste. The device is selectively utilized as either a flushing instrument or as an aspirating instrument in accordance with a valve control on the handle. The device is cumbersome and does not allow for rapid selection between multiple irrigants.
Similarly, Kahn U.S. Pat. No. 3,871,099, of Mar. 18, 1975 for Method for Cleaning Cavities With A Combined Fluid Delivering and Aspirating Instrument, discloses a syringe-like device capable of supplying a single fluid and capable of applying suction via a simple valve and tubing system. This device does not have the ability to supply multiple irrigants easily or to apply suction simultaneously with the irrigant.
In many procedures and particularly endodonic procedures it has been necessary to have several assistants attending the patient being treated. Most of the above devices have sought to relieve the congestion of personnel around the patient by performing functions which formerly required attending assistants. In the case of these devices the assistants are removed somewhat from the treatment area, however, in most instances their services are required where multiple irrigants are utilized to either refill and supply irrigant reservoirs or to manipulate aspirating devices.
With the rapidly increasing costs of health care a device is needed that will streamline patient care and free health care professionals to see more patients in an increasingly efficient manner.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide an instrument which will provide a larger than normally available storage supply of selected medicinal fluids to minimize refilling down-time.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an instrument that can dispense, at variable pressures, one of a number of medicinal fluids, water, air and suction.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an instrument that can accommodate disposable fluid supply means to facilitate rapid interchange of relatively inexpensive prefilled medicinal fluid containers.
It is a further object of the present invention to supply multiple services from one small, light-weight handpiece which can be easily used in "one hand" type operation while freeing the professional to perform other useful functions with the free hand and freeing other assistant-type personnel to perform other tasks.